We explain to you why the exit of the boss of TotalEnergies on his seven-figure salary does not pass

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Should Patrick Pouyanné have thought twice about it before commenting on his remuneration as a big boss? The exit of the CEO of TotalEnergies, Tuesday, October 18, did not fail to react and spark controversy, while employees of the oil group have been mobilizing for several weeks to obtain salary increases. Explanations.

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A tweet from Patrick Pouyanné lights the wick

In the midst of a social conflict facing TotalEnergies employees who are demanding an increase in their salaries, Patrick Pouyanné wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he was “tiredness” of the accusation that he “increased by 52%”. To support his point, the CEO of the oil group published “the true evolution of [sa] remuneration”.

Based on figures taken from an annual report by TotalEnergies (in PDF)the manager affirms that his remuneration is “constant”, around 6 million euros per year, “since 2017”. If his annual salary has indeed increased by 51.7% in 2021, it is because it has fallen sharply in 2020, at the very will of the CEO, who has “voluntarily amputated his salary” that year in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, he specifies.

A salary revealed in a tense social context

The tweet from the CEO of TotalEnergies caused an uproar, for several reasons. On the scale of the salary of the French, among whom many earn less than 2,000 euros per month, the figures put forward by Patrick Pouyanné are obviously staggering. “It’s above ground”, reacted Laurent Berger, Wednesday on LCI. “We cannot dispute when we look at the curve, that indeed it has not increased by 52%. But we are talking about a salary of 6 million euros”, continued the secretary general of the CFDT, who also disassociated himself from the strikes at TotalEnergies. “It can only be badly received at a time when there is a problem of power to live expressed by part of the population.”

On October 16, nearly 30,000 people pounded the pavement in Paris, “against the high cost of living and climate inaction”, at the call of the left. On Tuesday October 18, demonstrations took place all over France to demand a rise in wages during a day of interprofessional mobilization supported by the main trade union forces in the country. Inflation and soaring energy prices place purchasing power at the center of many French people’s concerns.

In this context, Patrick Pouyanné’s comments on his salary were disconcerting. A miscommunication? Everyone seems to agree, including in government. “It’s up to him to communicate as he sees fit on the evolution of his salary. I say that in the current context, we must all be extremely attentive to the message we send to each other”, said Wednesday the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, after the Council of Ministers.

Chain reactions on the left

Patrick Pouyanné’s tweet also did not fail to react on the left. La France insoumise (LFI), Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV), the Communist Party (PC) and the Socialist Party (PS)… Many representatives of the left spoke, not without sarcasm. “We all shed a tear for you, Patrick”, tweeted, for example, the national secretary of the PC, Fabien Roussel. “We will have to come back down to earth”, for his part reacted the boss of the PS, Olivier Faure.

“All my support to you who, in 2020, had to survive with 3,918,263 euros. Or 2,545 minimum wage”, ironically moved the deputy LFI François Ruffin. Even more acerbic, Sandrine Rousseau, EELV deputy, made the following observation: “It pays well to say so to be ecocidal and profiteer of war”. Thinly veiled references to the highly controversial pipeline project in Uganda and the fact that the oil group has not left Russia, unlike other companies, since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.

A “high” salary, but in the average of those of the bosses of the CAC40

If Patrick Pouyanné recognizes, in another tweet, that his salary is “admittedly high”he recalls that it is set by the company’s board of directors and stresses that it is “comparable to [ses] peers of the CAC40 and much lower than that of other European and American majors”.

In France, the specialized site ZoneBourse established last April a ranking of the best paid bosses of the CAC40. Among these 40 personalities, Patrick Pouyanné comes in ninth position, just behind Alexandre Bompard (Carrefour) and ahead of Olivier Roussat (Bouygues). The leader of TotalEnergies is in the high average of the best paid CEOs. Annual revenues which range, in this ranking, from one to almost 10 million euros (including bonuses). By way of comparison, an employee in the private sector earned on average in 2020 in France 2,518 euros net (3,300 euros gross) per month in full-time equivalent, according to INSEE.

In addition, Patrick Pouyanné does not appear in the ranking of the 500 richest people in the world, updated daily by the specialized media Bloomberg. (in English) or in that of the American magazine Forbes. In 2022, two American CEOs, Elon Musk (Tesla) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon), and a French leader, Bernard Arnault (LVMH), occupy the first three places, with fortunes estimated at several billion dollars.


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